One-Two Punch

In today’s post I’ll be dishing out a cosplay advice twofer for Yori Nightmare and Kiki0831.

Yori Nightmare asked what the best material would be for making Shippuden Sakura’s costume and shoes. Here’s the answer in two parts:

1) The Outfit: I would definatetly go for cotton with this one – it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to work with, and I believe it will achieve the look of this costume very well. The only exception would be the shorts she wears: while you could make them out of a stretchy material, I would save your time and money and just go buy a pair of bike shorts!

2) The Shoes: What I would do here is go and buy an open-toed shoe/sandal that appears the same as the bottom half of her shoes, and then sew boot covers to give the appearance of the boot. Don’t worry – many patterns come with a pattern for boot covers, and are pretty easy to make.

P.S.: Yori also asked about how to make Temari’s fan, but I have no idea! What I usually do in this situation is browse Cosplay.com or Cosplay Lab and find one someone has done that I like, then you could contact the person and ask them how they did it. You could also email brian@cosplaylocator.com and he can have one made for you. Be sure to get back to us if you discover a good method Yori!

Our next question is from Kiki0831, who asks if there is somewhere she can get patterns for specific cosplay costumes. Unfortunately Kiki, the answer is…not really. What most cosplayers (including myself) do is find a pattern close to what they need, and then alter it accordingly. Another option is altering thrift store finds, but this costume is a bit too unique for that, so I suggest the former. Keep in mind that you will probably mess up, but guess what? It’s okay! Creating cosplay costumes can be very complicated because of their uniqueness, so don’t feel bad if you’re not sure what to do. If you’re stuck on a certain element of the costume, do what I suggested before and ask someone who’s costume you like how they did it.

Well, that’s all for today! Sorry for the delay between question and advice, but I’ve started up school again and had quite a full plate! Did anyone else go to Anime Iowa this year? If so, I’d love to hear from you – until next time!